The invention relates to a portable toilet paper caddy. More particularly, the invention relates to a portable housing for storing, transporting, and dispensing toilet paper, and for storing and transporting a variety of survival and convenience items.
Although toilet paper is one of the greatest necessities of our day-to-day lives, it is often neglected or forgotten when engaging in activities such as hiking or camping. Even when it is not forgotten, the toilet paper roll can easily become wet and dirty long before it is even used. When toilet paper is carelessly packed along with other belongings, a great potential for the transmission of bacteria, germs, and disease exists.
Even when housed in a dispenser of sorts, a further problem exists in that too much toilet paper has a tendency to unwind. As a user attempts to tear the toilet paper, and often as the paper is initially unwound, the paper fails to tear and/or tends to continue unwinding past a desirable location. As is often the case with toilet paper, the toilet paper unwinds to a point where it covers a portion of the ground. Even if the floor is considered relatively clean, and the user wishes to rewind the toilet paper onto the roll, most attempts at manually rewinding toilet paper rolls produce unsightly results.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,154 to Swope discloses a portable roll dispenser, which is capable of filling with water to act as a ballast to make the dispenser free standing. However, the majority of the roll is left exposed, and thus the dispenser does little to prevent the toilet paper from becoming prematurely soiled.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,227 to Smith, Jr. discloses a rotation retarded product roll, wherein the over-dispensing of toilet paper or other rolled paper products is sought to be prevented. However, Smith discloses a device which is suited for wall mounting, and makes no attempts at providing a solution to the need for toilet paper portability.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.